Hello everyone. Praise the Lord!
LEVELS OF PROPHETIC REVELATIONS
There are many levels of prophetic revelation.
Impressions
Visions
Revelation
Open Visions
Trances
The beginning levels include prophetic "impressions." These are genuine revelations. They can be extraordinarily specific and accurate when interpreted by those who are experienced and sensitive to them. However, it is on this level that our "revelations" can be affected by our own feelings, prejudices, and doctrines. I have therefore resolved not to use such expressions as "thus saith the Lord" with any revelations that come on this level.
Visions can come on the impression level, also. They are gentle and must be seen with "the eyes of our heart." These, too, can be very specific and accurate, especially when received and/or interpreted by those who are experienced. The more the "eyes of our hearts" are opened, as Paul prayed in Ephesians 1:18, the more powerful and useful these can be.
The next level of revelation is a conscious sense of the presence of the Lord, or the anointing of the Holy Spirit, which gives special illumination to our minds. This often comes when I am writing, or speaking, and it gives me much greater confidence in the importance or accuracy of what I am saying. I believe that this was probably experienced by the apostles as they wrote the New Testament epistles. This will give us great confidence, but it is still a level where we can still be influenced by our prejudices, doctrines,etc. This is why I believe, in certain matters, Paul would say that he was giving his opinion, but that he thought he had [the agreement of l the Spirit of the Lord. In general, there is much more of a need for humility than dogmatism when we deal with the prophetic.
"Open visions" occur on a higher level than impressions; they tend to give us more clarity then we may have even when we feel the conscious presence of the Lord, or the anointing. Open visions are external, and are viewed with the clarity of a movie screen. Because they cannot be controlled by us I believe that there is far less possibility of mixture in revelations that come this way.
Another higher level prophetic experience is a trance, such as Peter had when he was first instructed to go to the house of Cornelius and preach the gospel to the Gentiles for the first time, and such as Paul had when he prayed in the temple in Acts 22. Trances were a common experience of the biblical prophets. Trances are like dreaming when you are awake. Instead of just seeing a "screen" like in an open vision, you feel like you are in the movie, that you are actually there in a strange way. Trances can range from those that are rather mild, so that you are still conscience of your physical surroundings, and can even still interact with them, to those where you feel like you are literally in the place of your vision. This seems to be what Ezekiel experienced rather frequently, and what John probably experienced when he had the visions recorded in the book of Revelation.
- The Final Quest, by Rick Joyner
William James Roop
